After fraud plea, custody issue linked to alleged 'honor killings'

The 30-year-old daughter of a man charged last year with killing an outspoken Iranian activist in Houston pleaded guilty Thursday to a federal charge of Social Security fraud.

Nadia Ali Irsan admitted to one count of making false statements to the Social Security Administration by claiming her sister lived with her and paid rent.

Irsan told U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes that her sibling has cerebral palsy and resided with their parents.

"My sister is disabled and the amount of money that they were giving her would not be enough to satisfy her needs," Irsan said.

Her two co-defendants, Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan and Shmou Ali Al-Rawabdeh, are her parents. The original 10-count fraud and theft indictment alleges a conspiracy to steal Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, by concealing assets for at least a decade. The three also are accused of providing false information regarding living arrangements in a scheme to increase benefits.

They were charged in May 2014 after a federal raid on Ali Irsan's Montgomery County home; he was accused of stealing money from the U.S. government by hiding cash in bank accounts in Texas, his native Jordan and in his Conroe attic. The complaint also identified him as a suspect in two Harris County homi­cide investigations and noted that a third killing, the 1999 death of a son-in-law, was ruled self-defense.

The day after the federal fraud arrests, Ali Irsan was charged by state prosecutors in the January 2012 killing of Gelareh Bagherzadeh, 30, outside her parents' Galleria-area townhome complex. The murder charge was dismissed in November, but the Harris County District Attorney's Office has indicated that more charges will be sought.

Another son-in-law, 28-year-old Coty Beavers, was shot dead in November 2012 in the Harris County apartment he shared with Ali Irsan's daughter Nesreen. The young couple had a strained relationship with Ali Irsan, a strict Muslim who relatives say was outraged when his daughter married Beavers without his permission.

They say the father blamed Bag­herzadeh, who was dating Beavers' twin, for encouraging his daughter to marry a Christian against her father's wishes.

Some details of the bizarre case were raised Thursday when Hughes inquired about why Nadia Irsan remained in custody.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Glenn Cook added that the investigation involves her co-defendants "being involved in what could be loosely called honor killings" and stated that the parents remain in custody.

Hughes said that he had "much concern for her safety" because a defendant who appeared before him in February, Michael V. Irving, was shot dead in a church parking lot days after pleading guilty in a credit card fraud scheme.